Aim

From time to time, I take interest in both card and real time tactics games. After struggling for a while to come up with an interesting idea for an 18-card game I tried making a tactics game. The idea was to:

• Bring to the table the enjoyment that a player of Age of Empires gets from using appropriate formations during battles.
• To somehow do it with only 18 cards…

Feedback

After playing the game with a few classmates after a few days of iterating and testing on my own the general feedback was as follows:

• The movement rules were too vague making it hard to understand what was a valid move.
• Solo cards moving on their own were very strong due to the freedom on manoeuvrability.
• It was unclear when the game would end.

Outcomes

All in all, it was an interesting development process. Each play-test helped me iron out new rules and regulations that helped make the game more interesting. Players would always surprise me by making moves I hadn’t even thought of, this was mostly an outcome of how I presented the rules to them. The ultimate solution after a few iterations in rules and cementing the movement mechanics was to have a printed rule sheet with some visual aid (showing what was a valid move, how to setup the board, etc.)

You can find the final version of the rule sheet here.